Laziness vs depression

These are some characteristics of laziness according to a book I just read. Some of them seem the same as what one encounters with depression. In either case one can work to get over them by observing one's thoughts. Just observe and don't make judgments. Then see what happens. This observing of one's thoughts is a new strategy in treating depression. Usually depressives tend to think they are worthless for example. If you examine your thoughts and come across this thought you can refrain from calling yourself worthless. If you do it enough, the tendency to call yourself worthless will occur less often. Try it.

Laziness:
1. Tendency to avoid inconvenience. I don't exercise because I would have to change clothes and go to the gym. (A depressive would probably not exercise because he has no energy.)

2. Sense of hopelessness; poor me; Aren't up to dealing with the world.
Even though we try to get out, we have hopelessness inside. (This sounds to me very much like depression.)

3. Characterized by resentment: Giving the world the finger.

4. The world is messed up. It's not giving me what I want. (In my opinion this would best fit the definition of lazy. I don't know if depressives have this outlook so much. At least I don't. I usually blame myself, not the rest of the world. I am worthless, the rest of the world is okay. That's how I want to be.)

These are some characteristics of laziness according to a book I just read. Some of them seem the same as what one encounters with depression. In either case one can work to get over them by observing one's thoughts. Just observe and don't make judgments. Then see what happens. This observing of one's thoughts is a new strategy in treating depression. Usually depressives tend to think they are worthless for example. If you examine your thoughts and come across this thought you can refrain from calling yourself worthless. If you do it enough, the tendency to call yourself worthless will occur less often. Try it.

Laziness:
1. Tendency to avoid inconvenience. I don't exercise because I would have to change clothes and go to the gym. (A depressive would probably not exercise because he has no energy.)

2. Sense of hopelessness; poor me; Aren't up to dealing with the world.
Even though we try to get out, we have hopelessness inside. (This sounds to me very much like depression.)

3. Characterized by resentment: Giving the world the finger.

4. The world is messed up. It's not giving me what I want. (In my opinion this would best fit the definition of lazy. I don't know if depressives have this outlook so much. At least I don't. I usually blame myself, not the rest of the world. I am worthless, the rest of the world is okay. That's how I want to be.)

How can you tell the difference between someone with dysthymia(or other mood disorder) and someone who is just truly lazy?

There are different stages of depression. In mild depression a person is / seems probably normal and is high-functioning, many hide / deny depression in themselves or don't understand what it is. At this stage a person might be completely unaware of their own depression.

Severe depression affects more seriously: cognitively; serotonin and other neurotransmitters, behaviouristically; at this point hiding depression becomes very hard; psychologically; depression has taken over the person, influencing their self-esteem, mood (depressed/anxious/hopeless all the time) etc. It has become a disease, that if not treated adequately, has a high risk of renewal (even if a person "gets better"). The statistics for renewal of severe depression are gloomy, the more periods you have the more prone you are not getting better. But anyway The question

Psychologically there's always a reason for laziness. Whether it is an attempt to reduce stress or avoid something or self-esteem related or whatever, there's always a reason. If a person has a fulfilling life and feels is in control of it and believes can manage the tasks and challenges facing him/her, people are not lazy. And I'm not talking about lazy in a sense that you won't do your homework etc, but in a bigger scale laziness, general apathy.

Everyone has hopes and dreams and a healthy individual is willing to work for those goals that motivates him/her. But whether it's a negative patterns of thinking ("I can't do this", "I'll always fail", "I don't care about my life/It's not how I wanted it to be anyway") and the link they have for depressive disorders is a different thing. Full depression is a disease but depressive outlook on life may expose the person to depression. Laziness is a symptom of something bigger.

laziness is a matter of priorities, on the other hand, depressed behavior may include laziness or apathy because the person who suffers from it does not easily experience a feeling of significance for their life or things they do, so the behavior is a byproduct of the subject's attitude of general indifference rather than simply preferring easy or leisurely activities over work.

I was thinking about this topic just today. Not depression vs. laziness but the laziness I get when Iím depressed. I've done a lot and am very motivated toward many things, my art, school, work, raising my daughter, running a nice household, keeping life together...but! And I hate when I get like this, but sometimes I have no motivation at all and this began to happen when I turned 30 off and on and I guess I just got burnt out.

I notice sometimes I canít think of one pleasurable thing in the world that would make me feel engaged, feel excited or interested in anything, and that is not like my normal self. I find ways to think through it sometime meditate or I have to really remember my vitamins and get enough sleep. Things that usually get me excited don't and my house gets messy and I just have to wait a few days until I feel motivated again, then I clean everything up and get back on track and it feels really good.

So sometimes the best remedy is to start doing things even though I really donít want to and I start to feel better. Although I believe my experience is normal especially because of the way we live in civilization, itís just not really how we were meant to live, so we get depressed. Some people have an actual brain chemistry problem and I think that is different from what I and most people experience sometimes.

There I said it, our culture and the way we live causes depression in otherwise healthy folks. What do you guys think?

Out beyond idea's of rightdoing and wrongdoing, there is a field, I'll meet you there. ~Rumi

I live by (quite hard) a principle, where my self-conviction comes before my productivity in some work - self-conviction, meaning whether I really want to do this, or not. So, when I do things or work it's almost like I'm doing it from-my-heart kind of thing...

... otherwise, generally I'm quite chilled - procrastinate much, and may come across as 'lazy' in some instances, and I'm sure that I'm not depressed.

But... BUT as a result of other less important things, such as peer pressure and perhaps other lazy people, I might become depressed at times, but everyone probably gets depressed now-and-then any way.

I don't think laziness is to do with depression, nonetheless.

... Uhh, since when did they start calling 'depression' a disease though?